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Memories are then replaced by different joys and larger sorrows, and unbelievably, those things get knocked aside as well, until one morning you’re picking cherries with your three grown daughters and your husband goes by on the Gator and you are positive that this is all you’ve ever wanted in the world.
This passage from Chapter 17 is a key moment in Lara’s realization that genuine happiness stems from embracing the present and realizing the value of what one already has. Throughout the novel, Lara spends a lot of her time picking over her past, sometimes happily and sometimes mournfully. In this moment, she comes to the conclusion that those memories, while they remain important, will eventually be “knocked aside” by the other joys and sorrows of her life. By acknowledging that even important memories are always replaced or modified by new experiences, Lara’s coming to terms with her own retelling of Duke’s story. This quotation is also important because Tom Lake is set against the background of a global crisis. Rather than allowing the psychological warfare of the pandemic to crush her, Lara decides to make the best of a situation. The enforced closeness due to the pandemic allows Lara and her daughters to reconnect, share stories, and take part in an activity that generations of Nelson farmers have performed.
"You can’t pretend this isn’t happening," Maisie said. I couldn’t, and I don’t. Nor do I pretend that all of us being together doesn’t fill me with joy. I understand that joy is inappropriate these days and still, we feel what we feel.
This quote from Chapter 2 also highlights the novel's exploration of conflicting emotions during moments of crisis. Maisie’s insistence on facing reality is juxtaposed here with Lara’s joy at being with her family. The quote underscores the tension between external circumstances and individual responses to them. Both Maisie and Lara are having to navigate a world in crisis. Lara’s acknowledgment that joy is “inappropriate these days” is somewhat tongue in cheek, as she doesn’t believe it’s their duty to be miserable just because others are. Maisie—who is following the news and getting alerts about the coronavirus on her phone—urges her mother to remember that outside of the farm, the world could be falling apart. Lara knows this is the case, but refuses to allow the external crisis to disrupt her internal happiness. There’s a clear contrast between Maisie’s desire to acknowledge the hardship that has forced them together and Lara’s simultaneous sense of joy at being given the chance to spend time with her family. While Lara cannot ignore the external circumstances, she also cannot suppress the happiness she feels from being reunited with her daughters.
Two years later, Emily decided Duke was her father, Maisie decided Emily had been possessed by Satan, and Nell decided she wanted to be an actress who would never come home again, though that might have happened anyway. Thanks to his ubiquitous presence in the world, the man I’d spent a summer with took up residence in our home, and still I thought of him remarkably little.
This quotation comes from Chapter 3, at the point in Tom Lake where Joe reveals that Lara used to date Peter Duke. Her daughters, then still quite young, immediately begin to obsess over him and to fantasize about his life with Lara. The list of responses Lara gives here reveals how each daughter interprets their mother’s past differently. Emily’s fascination with Duke points to a desire for belonging when she feels rejected and miserable at Three Sisters Orchards. Maisie—who hates how moody and angry Emily has become as a teenager—decides that Emily has changed so much she can’t possibly be the same person. Nell’s decision to become an actress like Lara was suggests she might be drawn to the glamour and freedom Duke represented. By becoming an actress like Lara, she could free herself from a rural existence at Three Sisters Orchards. None of these responses are based on reality, and yet each of Lara’s daughters allows the news about Peter Duke to change the way they live their lives.
